Interested in Instant Messaging on your Treo? This article is for you!

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Interested in Instant Messaging on your Treo? This article is for you!

Posted by Jack Draisey on July 22, 2005 06:13 PM

Treo software reviews

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Instant Message Client Mundu takes on VeriChat, Causerie features
with an overview of other IM clients and services for the Treo

Anyone with an at-home Yahoo!, AIM, MSN, or ICQ account before sporting their Treo, soon became aware that instant messaging clients for the Palm OS could make this online communication option more portable, with instant communication from anywhere. The excitement quickly paled when we discovered that, unlike the free home computer versions, about all good IM clients for the Treo had to be purchased. Even the original chat client, AOL Instant Messenger, free for home computer users, was now $20 for the Treo. True, the older AIM version 1 can be found and is free, but it is feature-poor and buggy on the Palm OS5.

Is there a “best instant messaging client?

There are several excellent instant messaging clients available to Treo owners, and the usual question in MTDN forums is which one is best. Because answer is arguable, the solution turns out to be more complex than it appears. Some IM clients cost too much, some only work with one service, and others lack attractive interfaces or features.

Recently Mundu Interoperable Messenger released version 3, a major upgrade in both features and price, from its version 2. The new version begins to take on features previously only seen by the major subscription based IM clients. Now the question of which Instant Messenger client is the best needs a closer look.

‘Always On’ is an essential feature to many users

One of the best IM clients available to Treo owners is arguably VeriChat. Almost an industry standard, VeriChat is a feature-rich client that is interoperable among all four major messaging services. One of its best advantages is its ability to work in the background in an "always on" mode. Most other IM clients can’t stay connected to the server when you switch to another application, much less when you switch your Treo off to standby mode.

Instant Messaging clients like VeriChat, and another major feature-rich client, Causerie Messenger, can remain on and alert you when someone comes online or sends a message. This is so even if your Treo is in standby mode.

Of all the features offered by Palm-based instant message clients, this is certainly the most important one to robust IM users. Everything else, like the information bots in their premium editions, chat logging, file transferring, and graphic emoticons, are mainly useful “nice-to-haves for most users.

The downside to VeriChat and Causerie is that they use a very pricey subscription-based business model for their application. You buy the IM client and one year of service for one price, then pay an annual fee to continue using it. VeriChat, for example, is $25 to buy and a $20 per year subscription for their standard edition, and $40/$35 for the premium edition. Many potential customers are put off by this idea, especially when home computer-based chat services are all free and so are their chat clients.

Mundu IM now offers fully supported, always on, background mode

With the release of version 3, Mundu IM joins the ranks of the "always on" interoperable chat client, with one major difference: It is a one-time-only price without subscription.

Mundu IM version 3 does what it purports to do, and does it as well as VeriChat and Causerie for background operation. In standby mode, you can set it to vibrate or sound audio alerts if there is activity on the channel. You cans also set email alerts for Yahoo! and MSN.

The new version is more colorful and more attractive than version 2, and supports customizable color, font and style of your chat text. You can also customize your status for each messenger service, and use graphic emoticons. It features several options, like auto-reply instead of an alert when in background mode if you receive a message.

Mundu cross conferencing, a first of its kind service

Mundu offers a feature not seen before in Treo IM clients: the ability to cross conference between services. It allows you to basically set up a chat room and invite buddies from different IM services. Cross conferencing is Mundu IM’s most interesting feature and allows buddies from the different services to interact.

How the IM clients stack up

Any computer user with any sophistication will tell you that there is no such thing as a “best" application of any kind. Any claim along those lines is simply an opinion and no more relevant than saying there is “best‿ pair of pants. With applications for your Treo, what you are seeking is more along the lines of a “solution" for your particular needs.

If your are a very heavy IM user who will be spending a lot of time on your Yahoo! or AOL IM account, you may wish to consider VeriChat or Causerie premium editions. The bots are very useful for instant information, like weather, local movies, or the nearest pizza palace. These versions also allow multiple accounts on the same service (like two Yahoo! accounts).

If that is too much money, consider their standard accounts, as either edition of VeriChat or Causerie have other features like chat logging, file transfer, and email notifications that may appeal to a hardy user.

If you are a medium to heavy user who just wants to chat and are not interested in extended functionality, consider Mundu IM. It likely has all the features you need, including an attractive interface, always on, rich text, and emoticons. Having a one-time purchase price makes Mundu appealing. That price is, however, $30, twice what version 2 costs.

If you are medium to light IM user, you actually have several options. Mundu IM version 2 is offered at $14.95. It is attractive with less glitz than version 3. It claims to offer “always on," though I never got that feature to work well with my Treo 600. There could be other reasons for that, and it might work okay with your device. That is the beauty of try before you buy software.

If you are a light user, or only use a particular service, there are plenty of freeware IM clients available that may suit your needs. These and other clients, both better and lesser known, are listed below.

If I missed any, please feel free to post that information in the discussion thread for this article. These IM clients were not all tested for this article. In some cases thread postings or download comments were reviewed for patterns. If you have better or different information or opinion, please also post in the discussion thread.

Agile Messenger 2.0 beta. Freeware. ICQ, AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, QQ and Wireless Village. Always on: No. Still in beta testing stage. GUI somewhat lacking and buggy on some Treos. A much improved version 3.0 has been released by AgileMobile, though their site links downloads for about all operating systems except Palm. Only 2.xx is available for Palm download.

IM+ . Shareware. $4.95 for 60 days. AOL, ICQ, MSN and Jabber. Always on: Yes

InterAct Basic 1.0. Shareware, $24. AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo. Always on: Doesn’t say, so probably not. “You can stay online via a GPRS connection and communicate for hours, before incurring the cost of a single text (SMS) message. Even abroad.

Chatopus. Shareware, $14.95. (Jabber/XMPP client) Interoperable with MSN, Yahoo!, AIM, ICQ, GaduGadu. Also RSS reader. Always on: Yes. Other features, bots, etc.

Treo Messenger for Yahoo!. Freeware. Yahoo!. Always on: no. Buggy on some devices, nice looking, free, Yahoo!

AOL AIM 1.0. Freeware. AOL IM only. Always on: No. Old version, not optimized for Treos. Some report problems, works fine on others. Backup everything first just to be sure.

AOL 3.x for Treo 600 and Treo 650. Commercial. $19.95. AOL only. Messenger, plus other AOL functionality, like mail . Always on: yes, for application switching. No documentation for standby mode.

ICQ 2.1 beta. Freeware. ICQ only. Always on: No. Some comments say it crashed their Treo. Backup first to be safe.

ChitChat Lite – MSN. Freeware. MSN only. Always on: Yes.

QuickIM MSN Messenger. Shareware, $24.99. MSN only. Always on: Doesn’t say, so probably not. Connects directly with MSN server.

Click here to purchase Mundu IM from mytreo.net/store!

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Comments

July 23, 2005 06:03 PM {#}

aznmikex215@hotmail.com says:

Goood article! newbie users like me need things like this!
Anyway, you seem to missing a link to Mundu and Verichat? I think adding a link to those two programs would be helpful!

July 25, 2005 01:14 PM {#}

Mahootzki says:

Nice article, I think that another difference between Verichat/Couserie & Mundu is that Mundu doesn't use their own servers, they connect you directly to Aim, Yahoo ect.

July 25, 2005 03:48 PM {#}

Allen says:

Testing Causerie now. Very nice.
I also really liked Chatter. That was a great tool but the developer quit allowing new accounts and ICQ started to go flakey. Wish the code could be released open-source. That would make a great project.

July 27, 2005 12:02 AM {#}

copasetic says:

Good for you, Mondu IM! I was "burned" as one of the former "Lifetime purchase" members who paid a one time $54.95 fee for service. Sadly, this program, even for existing customers has been since discontinued (I face the same monthly fee as anyone :( ). Even without that, the sheer fact that MIM doesn't care about fee-based proxy servers is a great thing, for security, speed and reliability, as we would expect. I have had some minor delays with the previous version of MIM, and it didn't do offline conversion to TXT like VC did (With VC, you could get a TXT message if MIM isn't running in the foreground). Granted, this was not something you ALWAYS wanted, especially if you didn't have an unlimited TXT plan. Now it seems that will change with MIM. Causerie was very EASY to set up for me, but since has "cause-ried" a few problems with my Treo, and the previous 7135, but it also seems more stable. The only concern I have not been able to test with MIM OR Causerie is timing out when online versus a constant battery use while connected (VC was great with this). With no monthly fee, I am still excited about MIM. This is going to be a great thing, hopefully competition is good :).

July 27, 2005 08:57 AM {#}

Chris Cox says:

I would like to mention that the information about Treo Messenger for Yahoo is incorrect. I use it regularly and is always-on by default. I get messages even when phone is in standby. It comes up with an alert using the SMS application. works great!

July 28, 2005 09:13 PM {#}

alex_mayorga says:

A comparision chart would be great. But anyway this is a very enlightening reading. Thanks.

August 1, 2005 02:14 AM {#}

Dom says:

great reviews...Are there any IRC clients that will work with a Treo 650? Thx!

August 1, 2005 11:24 AM {#}

mytreo.net ? says:

Dom: search the mytreo.net downloads area for IRC and you will find the following two freeware IRC clients, both work on the Treo 650:

PalmIRC: http://mytreo.net/downloads/details-392.html?PalmIRC

upIRC: http://mytreo.net/downloads/details-393.html?upIRC

I've used upIRC many times and it is robust, PalmIRC is a newcomer and is being very actively developed with new features being added often.

Hope that helps!
Chris

August 1, 2005 10:30 PM {#}

Steve says:

Thanks for the great roundup! Just one question: where did you get Mundu v3 ? I've been to the developer's site and palmgear.com, and both only have v2.4. A little help?

August 2, 2005 01:17 PM {#}

mytreo.net ? says:

Mundu IM v3 is available at mytreo.net/store:

http://mytreo.net/store/product.php?xProd=270

this should be in the article but somehow it was missed out, we'll fix it!

August 2, 2005 05:42 PM {#}

Massimo says:

Thx, useful article.
As you rightly say, background operation is the most important feature.
One other very important feature that I am appreciating with Verichat is that if the Treo goes out of network coverage, I will still appear as online (away), rather than offline. I would be very embarassed to have my boss see a pop-up with "xxx is now online" every 2 minutes during my underground journeys...
Which other IM does that?

August 3, 2005 04:55 PM {#}

macmouse says:

Beware - The Treo messenger for yahoo uses up your SMS messages! It doesn't use your data plan at all!

Plus if its hard/expensive to get a nice data plan for your providor, but bad if its expensive to get unlimited SMS (or costs extra to your allready unlimited data plan).

August 6, 2005 02:14 AM {#}

Dr. Mark Lipschitz says:

I use the UK version of AIM here in the states. It works fine on my 650 and works off of the expansion card. http://www.aol.co.uk/aim/palm/

August 30, 2005 02:13 PM {#}

Jakob says:

I use Mundu v3, I would never cash out for a subscription for something that is essentially free.
Mundu has a number of issues though:
- doesn't support 320x480
- the new "fancy" look uses up an insane amount of screen space for its blue borders, very bad design indeed, they need to rethink this
- non-English characters are not supported, while this is not an issue for most people, the lack of support is a bad sign, it's not hard to implement
- you cannot change font or font size in the chat room view, only color and other stylistic features
- I experience it being unstable logging me off MSNM very often
- it feels like the application has no more features than is needed, like the amount of work and time spent developing it is just as much as they need to have it sold, the competition being as poor as it is and the other applications being even worse, compare this to Agendus, one of my favorite applications which has a quality feel to it

September 6, 2005 01:55 AM {#}

DigiMom says:

I have tried the VeriChat, Causerie, Mundu, and a few others. These three were top for me, however each had it's pros and cons. The Causerie was very nice looking, sound was great too. It was a little pricey and not always reliable. Verichat was nice, not as nice looking and the sound alerts were not good at all and no pop-ups, BUT PICTURES COULD BE SENT FROM THE TREO AT NO ADDITIONAL COST... I have T-MO and if you send pics MMS, you pay. Mundu looked nice, had great features and price and the pop up that alerted you, however, it does not allow you to use the phone and the service at the same time(or at least that was the message I got when I tried to check my IM's while on the phone). I did like the price but I hate that it reset me all the time.
In my opinion, even though the sound and looks are not that great, the VeriChat was the most reliable thus far.... still looking for one better. The BEST would be if it had the look of Causerie, the reliability and ability to send attachments like VeriChat and the price of Mundo, lol. DigiMom

September 22, 2005 05:43 PM {#}

DigiFather says:

I totally agree with DigiMom. Causerie, Verichat and Mundu are the top 3. Mundu does not right work 100% in the background and hence I eliminated after initial 1 day screening. I have tried Causerie and Verichat for weeks. Emailing Causerie support, I was given one more month for the trial. Awesome UI with first multiple account and bots support. Innovation is the key here. Causerie came last in the show, innovated many things which others followed. Verichat stays top on reliability of the network but crashes MANY times. Causerie is stable at the client but I get validation errors now and them. Though the validation errors are disappearing slowly and lately I have been online for 3 days. Thats the LONGEST time I have been online on a mobile phone. Happy IM'ing. Choose from Causerie (my choice) and Verichat.

September 22, 2005 07:56 PM {#}

xandrake says:

I'm currently trying Mundu Lite with no quarrels aside from the inability to use phone and IM at the same time. I do notice that while running in the background, I get logged out of both MSN and AIM at times. I've been advised to try out Verichat, but am not a huge fan of paying a monthly fee -- which is also keeping me from MMOs.

Just some insight.

October 30, 2005 07:19 PM {#}

Tony says:

I have a lot of problems with the registered version. Once the Treo times out, it takes MINUTES to get it back on. The worst part is that REPEATED requests for support have gone unanswered. I did get one maintenance update, that did not fix it. Since then, not even a "Be patient, we're working on it". I am seeking a refund.

November 16, 2005 04:02 AM {#}

tinhvo says:

your article is very helpful. I am trying the trial version on my treo 650. I have unlimited data plan. the forum says that IM for yahoo uses SMS: you will rack up SMS bill. does Mundu use sms? how about senting picture using Mundu? thank for help newbie like me. thanks

January 15, 2006 06:48 AM {#}

Felix says:

Do any of these work using only SMS? I do not want to use Wireless data service. I have a treo 650 and wanted an IM client that can login and chat using SMS. Don't care about Always ON.
Please let me know.
F

January 15, 2006 07:32 AM {#}

Felix says:

Question. I do not have a data plan. (my preference). Do any of these work through SMS only? I am asking about the multi IM software.
F

March 12, 2006 09:36 AM {#}

Matt says:

Toccer is a good one that isn't mentioned. It's AOL only, but you can't beat the price-it's FREE. Check it out in the downloads.

December 20, 2006 06:48 AM {#}

carydc says:

Verichat - Pulled from market by Nokia
Mundu - Unreliable on Treo 700p
Causerie - No Private User Support what ever
Chatopus - Difficult at best to install and configure.

IM+ only remaining option for always on IM ( MSN, AOL, ICQ,Google Talk, Yahoo! and Jabber)

Majority of the rest are one trick pony's.

January 29, 2007 11:43 PM {#}

ryanthecoltsfan says:

Been using Mundu for 10 days now and have absolutely no problems. I've found it to be reliable. My only issue with it (and every other IM app) is you cant view away messages and buddy icons.

I have the 700p